UPDATE 1-Nuclear reactor group Areva 1st-half sales rise

PARIS, July 24 (Reuters) - French nuclear power reactor
manufacturer Areva CEPFi.PA reported a 14.8 percent rise in
first-half sales on Thursday as a global revival of nuclear
power fed demand for nuclear reactors and uranium fuel.

The state-controlled group, which has repeatedly rejected
overtures by French heavy engineering group Alstom (ALSO.PA) to
merge their businesses, also said it expects a strong increase
in 2008 sales and backlog.

First-half revenue from reactors and services surged 27
percent to 1.466 billion euros, while the company's front-end
business -- uranium mining and enrichment -- generated sales of
1.488 billion euros, up from 1.342 billion a year earlier.

Transmission and Distribution, the business bought from
Alstom in 2004 that supplies systems to transform and deliver
power, saw turnover rise 13 percent to 2.284 billion euros.

Areva said its total backlog stood at 38.1 billion euros as
of June 30, up 13.6 percent year on year.

Rising oil prices and concerns about climate change have
led many countries to search for cleaner alternatives,
including nuclear power, to more polluting traditional sources
of energy.

Areva, which is bidding to build nuclear reactors in
Britain, the Middle East and South Africa, has said its aim is
to increase sales to more than 20 billion euros by 2012 and to
capture a third of nuclear reactor orders in the coming years.

The group forecast installed nuclear capacity would
increase to 635 gigawatts (GWe) in 2030 from 372 GWe in 2006,
including 344 GWe of new capacity and after taking shutdowns
into account.

Areva Chief Executive Anne Lauvergeon has said this may
translate into orders for 60 new reactors by 2020.

The prospect of these new reactors coming on stream in the
next 10 to 20 years has stoked uranium prices, which surged
from $7 a pound in 2000 to a record high of $136 last year.

Even though spot uranium prices have since retreated to
just under $60 a pound, Areva's mining chief, Sebastien de
Montessus, recently told Reuters they should climb again and
remain high, fuelled by stretched production capacities and
rising costs to develop new projects.